


I Think I Fell A Little More

by nhasablog



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, M/M, Multi, Post-War, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 07:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17055497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhasablog/pseuds/nhasablog
Summary: Harry finds Cho and Cedric after the war.A collection of domestic moments.





	I Think I Fell A Little More

**Author's Note:**

> Vague hints at PTSD and traumas, but nothing graphic.

Harry woke up with a phantom ache in his scar; heart in his throat and hands fending off an invisible threat in the early hours of a winter morning. The lack of light was enough to keep his pulse high. Waiting, waiting for the imminent blow, feeling fifteen all over again.

Cho’s hesitant fingers found his first, touching them softly so to not startle him. She knew what to do. Had done it countless times in the year and a half that had passed since the war had ended. Harry exhaled and allowed her to take the lead, reminding him that the past was the past. Easing him into her arms in their warm bed.

Cedric joined once Harry’s heartbeat was back to normal, running his fingers through Harry’s hopeless tangle of hair. He wasn’t saying anything, but Harry didn’t need words. Neither of them did. He was certain that their relationship would survive even if none of them ever said another word to each other.

“I’m okay,” he croaked out, painfully aware that he’d probably been screaming in his sleep. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank us,” Cho said, her smile bearing no pity. This had been her a few days ago.

Harry rolled to the side to bury his face in her neck, making her let out a surprised laugh. “Will this ever end?”

Cedric was the one to reply. “I think it will get easier, but- well, scars are still scars.”

“They don’t always ache though,” Cho said. Harry reached up to touch his own out of habit, the act not escaping his partners.

Cho kissed his knuckles and Harry stroked her lips with his finger. Cedric scooted closer and settled down behind him. They were done speaking for tonight.

* * *

 

Cedric was making tea when Harry came home, reluctant to unwrap himself from the protection of his coat and scarf. The apartment was quiet, a telltale sign that Cho wasn’t around to fill it with music or the clattering of dishes or her singing under her breath. Cedric was much more subtle about existing. In a way, Harry adored how much of polar opposites they were. How much of a contrast to their general images they were deep down.

Harry hugged him from behind as Cedric poured water into two cups, humming when Harry mumbled a low hello into his shoulder blades. “Soaking up my body heat, are we?”

“Why else would I be keeping you around?” Harry replied with a grin.

Cedric’s body rumbled as he laughed. “Fair enough.” He turned around to press a brief kiss to Harry’s lips, smiling when they parted, and then diving back in for a longer one. “How was your day?”

“Long.”

“Anything exciting happen?”

“Not really. A rare day where I was stuck with the aftermath of cases instead of actively solving them.”

“Paperwork.”

Harry nodded. “Paperwork.”

“I guess you need a reality check every now and again.”

Harry jammed his shoulder lightly into Cedric’s chest. “Hey now.”

Cedric was grinning. “Can’t be the all mighty hero all the time.”

“Now you’re just being rude for the sake of it.”

“Can’t be the savior of the universe every other minute-”

“Oh, you’re done for.”

Back in their school days, when they’d both been in the Triwizard Tournament and eventually won, Harry and Cedric had grown close. They’d not kissed, not like Harry had kissed Cho when she and Ced had briefly broken up the year after, but they’d both known something was there. It had been confusing, but it hadn’t kept them from bumping shoulders, brushing hands, poking ribs or squeezing arms. After the war Harry had found them both again, and something had just clicked when the three of them had been reunited.

Their lives, despite the nightmares and traumas, hadn’t lacked laughter since. Cedric giggled easily now as Harry wrapped his arms around him to scribble his fingers over his lower back, the counter behind him keeping him trapped in Harry’s embrace. This was such a common scene that Harry had memorized the way Cedric would try to escape. Tonight, he decided to let him suffer for a bit, if only so that he would get him back later. Merlin knew Harry needed the laughter.

“Don’t be mean,” Cedric whined, reaching back in an attempt to grab Harry’s hands. In return, Harry moved one of them to his belly, spidering over the sensitive skin. Fabric had never done much to protect his boyfriend’s weak spots, and Harry relished in how his laughter rose in pitch.

“What a predicament you’re in,” Harry teased, knowing full well that each word spit fuel into the inevitable revenge. Cedric probably saw right through him, but was in no position to comment on it, thankfully.

Cho came home as Harry started blowing at Cedric’s neck, being too short to properly reach him for a raspberry. “Are you making a ruckus without me?”

“It’s all in preparation for your arrival,” Harry said over Cedric’s cries for help.

“How romantic. I should swoon.”

“How about you help me out instead?”

Cho hummed, entering the kitchen fully. “I think I’d rather get you, actually. He seems to have had enough.”

Harry was still timid enough to pretend to loathe the suggestion. It was no use, of course, but he couldn’t help but to hold up his hands, backing away from them both once Cho approached and he had to let Cedric go.

Cedric recovered quickly. A glance at each other. A shared grin. The imminent teasing at the tip of their tongues.

And then Harry backed straight into a chair and tumbled to the ground with it. Charming.

They both sat with him in the bathroom as Cedric held an ice pack against his bruised back. They could probably fix it quickly with magic, but where was the bonding experience with that? Besides, they were both subtly tickling his bare skin, so Harry wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Why are you jumping?” Cedric asked, his smirk audible in his voice.

Harry twitched at the fingertips that brushed against his side again. “No reason.”

“You’re not cold, are you?”

“I’ve literally got ice on me.”

“Well, let us warm you then,” Cho said, scooting closer, the bathtub complaining the entire time. “We can’t have you shivering, can we?” She wrapped an arm around him, her fingernails scraping against the nape of his neck.

“He’s still shivering,” Cedric said.

“We’ll have to try harder then.”

Cedric removed the ice pack and grabbed for his wand. “Let’s heal him first.”

That was enough to tell him he was in for a very giggly night. Just like the doctor ordered.

* * *

 

Cedric kissed them both awake that Saturday, pressing his lips softly to their cheeks, foreheads, arms, until they stirred and felt the comforting scent of freshly brewed coffee. Always an early bird, Cedric was already dressed and looking as if he’d been up for hours.

“Have you made us breakfast?” Cho asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Cedric’s lips twitched. “Do I look like a servant, huh?”

“Well, you come bearing coffee.”

He huffed, and Harry heard Cho laugh a ticklish laugh as Cedric presumably wiggled his fingers against her bare side. “I’m just trying to be nice. So ungrateful.”

Harry rolled over, too tired to properly enjoy their playfulness yet. Apparently Cedric wasn’t having it, for he soon jumped onto the bed and squeezed himself between them, clinging to Harry as if desperate. “Get up, come on.”

“No.”

“Don’t be stubborn. It’s nearly ten.”

“So?”

“We have things to do and I know you hate not getting a quiet moment beforehand. Come on.”

Harry pouted. “But I’m tired.”

Cedric gave his shoulders a squeeze. “I know. That’s why I have coffee all ready for you.”

“Five more minutes?”

Cedric sighed. “Fine. Five more minutes.” He rolled onto his back and allowed both Harry and Cho to cuddle into him. A better morning was rare.

* * *

 

Cho was having one of her off days. Harry knew them all too well, but he still felt himself fumbling for ways to help her. Help her feel just a little bit lighter.

But, seeing as he’d only been with her like this for about a year, he turned to Cedric, who had been with her for longer.

“Give her space,” he said. “But make sure to show her you’re there.”

Together, they did just that. Entering the room and letting her curl up in their arms when she needed to, but keeping quiet if she didn’t seem to want to talk. Quietly handing her a cup of tea, sitting down beside her with a book, talking about mundane things to keep her mind busy for the moment. Harry brushing his hand against hers, grabbing it if she wanted him to.

It helped. They could tell it did.

* * *

 

Harry was just getting out of the shower when Cedric and Cho came home. Grinning, he pushed the door open to greet them only to find a sullen look on Cho’s face and Cedric nowhere in sight.

Ah. They had fought. Harry always felt weird about it whenever he wasn’t included. It wasn’t that he  _wanted_ to fight with them, but he never knew how to react whenever they were mad at each other and he had no idea why. He couldn’t pick sides, and they’d never asked him to, but he couldn’t help but feel as if a disagreement between those two left him shaken by the aftershocks.

Cedric had occupied the bedroom, where Harry was supposed to grab fresh clothes, and he had a feeling entering now would be a mistake, so he followed Cho into the kitchen and watched her helplessly as she made tea. In retrospect, boiling water to put a tea bag in was a rather meager task, and she stood there as still as a marble statue until Harry was certain she hadn’t seen him follow.

She spoke as he turned to leave. “It’s nothing serious. Just a silly disagreement between a couple that’s left the honeymoon stage years ago.”

Harry idly wondered if his presence in the relationship was to rekindle a lost spark, but he shook the thought out of his head. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She exhaled slowly. “No. It wouldn’t be fair right now when I’m still angry. I’d just paint him up as the villain.”

“Is there a villain?”

“Objectively? It depends on how you see it.” The kettle started whistling and she reached to pull it away from the eye. “Subjectively? I think he’s full of shit.”

Harry snorted out an involuntary laugh, and Cho’s lips twitched at the corners as she poured the water into cups. Three cups, Harry noted.

“Do you think it’s safe to go in there?” he asked, feeling a bit chilly in just his towel.

She waved a hand. “The worst thing he can do is rant. Between us, don’t listen to him.”

He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Not a subjective opinion, I presume?”

Cedric was lying on top of the covers when he entered, glowering at the wall across the room. “Don’t ask.”

Harry shut the door behind him. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I just came to get clothes.”

“Be my guest.” Cedric looked exhausted. Harry had recognized it in the slump of Cho’s shoulders too. The war had left them all testy, but there had never been any question about it. None of them were giving up until they couldn’t find any joy in their current situations anymore. For them, joy was more common than not.

Harry dumped the towel on the floor and grabbed for clean boxers and and a t-shirt, picking up his discarded sweatpants once he was done. Cedric had been watching him the entire time, his stony expression not necessarily what one wanted to see while undressing before their partner, but Harry didn’t mind. Cedric was mostly watching his movements more than anything.

He leaned over the bed to press his lips to Cedric’s temple. “Cho made tea. Should I bring your cup?”

He sighed. “No. I’ll come out. Give me a moment.”

Harry did, and in the end it all turned out okay.

* * *

 

Cedric couldn’t sleep, so when Harry and Cho woke the next morning they found him in the kitchen making melomakarona - classic Greek honey cookies - without using magic. He was already on his fifth batch, proof of a sleepless night, and the only thing he said when they raised their eyebrows was, “Christmas treats for Ron’s family.”

Fair enough, they thought, not asking about the hour he’d started making them, and went to grab a couple for themselves from the finished pile.

“Excuse me,” he said, poking Harry in the ribs and missing Cho since she backed away. “Those aren’t for you.”

“Are you saying you will let us starve?” Harry asked, mock scandalized.

Cedric rolled his eyes. “I always cook for you. Time to return the favor.”

“Ah, so you want to starve then?”

“Speak for yourself,” Cho said, poking Harry as Cedric had done. “I happen to be a very decent cook.”

Harry went for her belly, succeeding where Cedric had failed to make her laugh. “Prove it then.”

“I will!”

“Harry, what have you done?”

Cedric’s reply earned him a light slap rather than a tickle. “Rude.”

Such was their Christmas Eve morning. Cedric did allow them to have some honey cookies eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my [tumblr](http://nhasablog.tumblr.com)


End file.
